Embers of Embers

Chapter 373 The Final Slave of Destiny
"If you missed the train I took, I would have left alone.
Listen to the long and distant sound of the whistle, taking me away and leaving my hometown. "
People came and went on the platform, trains stopped and departed one after another, and groups of people arrived and left.
Young people, carrying heavy backpacks, come from small towns that are rarely marked on the map. They are looking at this magnificent and glorious city, humming happily but sadly.
The singing was reverberating, and Lorenzo couldn't help but follow, humming a shallow melody, sitting alone on a bench, like a bystander, quietly witnessing all this happening.
"What are they singing?"
The woman came over and sat where Mrs. Van Rude had just been.
"It's just an ordinary song, probably about people who have left their homes."
As Lorenzo spoke, he picked up another cigarette and puffed out the smoke. The smoke mixed with water vapor, shrouding him in whiteness.
"Leaving your homeland? It sounds quite sad."
"I feel it's ok."
"good?"
The woman was a little surprised, but when she thought about Lorenzo being a weird guy, she wasn't too surprised.
"Yes, I think it's not bad. At least they still have a place of warmth and expectation in their hearts. When they are sad, they will think about their distant hometown and their hearts will become stronger. And they will eventually return to their hometown one day."
Lorenzo's eyes remained in the void ahead, as if in a daze.
"I have been thinking about some things over the past month, and those lost memories came like a tide, and I felt like my personality was being torn apart.
At that time I was thinking, where can I go back?Feileng Cui?Everyone I knew there was dead, and the new pope looked like he wanted to hack me to death. So where was the old Dunling?Still not working, I am the only one left in 121A Cork Street...
i was thinking...
I can't reach that ideal distant place, nor can I return to the hometown in my memory.
Where am I?Watson. "
Watson shook his head. She couldn't answer Lorenzo's questions. Human beings are such strange creatures. They always feel sad because of some strange things, but such things are the knots in their lives that are difficult to break.
The silence lasted for a while, and Lorenzo looked towards the end of the railway track as if his thoughts had just come to his senses.
"I met a doctor a few days ago. Her name is Abigail. She said that people's will is very fragile, so when encountering bad things, they will take the initiative to forget some bad things to protect themselves."
"This month has been really bad. I feel like my thoughts are like rusted gears. It's all frozen together. If I can, I really want to forget about it."
Live like a wild dog, don't care so much, don't even have to think, just follow your instinct.
"Really? But as far as you are concerned, your will is not weak enough to be defeated so easily. The part about your amnesia is due to the side effect of Gabriel, the power." Watson explained.
"side effect?"
"Well, in the final analysis, [Gap] invasion is to destroy the will of others so that your will can dominate this new body. But obviously, the scene on the night of Holy Advent is still too complicated.
You are not familiar with Power Gabriel, and you have experienced so much at that time, not to mention that you are still unable to kill 047.You didn't completely destroy his will. He survived like a ghost, and the two wills were confused together.It is also for this reason that you regard his memory as your own and get lost in it. "
"Is that so?"
Lorenzo's expression remained calm. From this point of view, the mystery of his cognition at that time was also explained. His memory and 047's memory were confused, which was why those things happened.
"I remember that we went on missions together and lived together. Is that also a lie?"
"Do you mean the actions after becoming a demon hunter? Yes, you identified yourself as 047, but you were not there at the time."
"It's too bad. I miss that experience all the time."
Lorenzo rubbed his head. Now he didn't have much reaction to these truths.
"Then why didn't you tell me this after the Night of Advent? About the power of Gabriel, about the Night of Advent, about who I am, why did you deceive me?"
"Because no, I don't think you can accept all of this. After going through so many hellish battlefields, countless life and death, you... you even killed your friend and lived in his body..."
Watson said cruel words.
"I have to find a way to keep you alive. For a person who is determined to die, something that forces him to persist will be his best support."
"revenge?"
"Revenge, rage, swing your sword at the monsters who took away all this, keep swinging your sword until you die."
This was the best solution Watson could think of at the time. Although cruel, it worked.
"So you have become a monster yourself, a monster that I have to keep imprisoned, a monster that keeps me alive."
Lorenzo felt that his mind might need to slow down. He had always believed that Watson, the pseudo-Holy Grail, was the cause of the Night of Advent, but now it seemed that she was just a part of the conspiracy. Lorenzo It seemed ridiculous to begin to doubt that he had been a jailer for so long.
"I need a reason to exist, and as your opposite existence, I can let you vent your anger on the Holy Night, and it can also give you the motivation to continue to take revenge and live on."
Watson's tone was cold, like a machine executing orders.
"So Watson, are you 016?"
"016 is dead. 016 was chosen as the recipient of [Sublimation]. She was already dead when she became me."
"Then what are you? Watson."
"I……"
The cold Watson suddenly stopped, a little confusion flashed in her eyes. She had been faithfully executing the orders of the "Scabbard Treaty", but at this moment she was also confused about herself.
"I don't know, probably some kind of monster. All of this comes from the research of Lorenzo Medici. He believes that the blood of the Holy Grail is the [key], and the power Gabriel is the key to open a certain door [ certificate】."
"Are you also part of his plan?"
"The war faction will cause terrible consequences, and Lorenzo Medici was unable to stop them at that time. All he could do was to comply with them and find a way to fight back. Later, he really found it. In the experiment The moment they started, they hit the [border], and then the Silent Ones came."
Lorenzo frowned slightly, and everything that had been deliberately concealed gradually became clear in his mind.
"If my guess is correct, this is actually part of Lorenzo Medici's plan, right? The Reticents will concentrate and kill the war faction. He only needs to gain power in the dry well Gabriel , takes over my body, and he will be reborn.
No...it was even his plan to conduct two experiments at the same time on one day, right?If there are a fixed number of Silent Ones, the Temple of Stasis will help him attract firepower...
As expected of you, Lorenzo Medici.
I think he will return to the Temple of Stasis like a hero to take control of it all, and from this night on the entire Evangelical Church will fall under his control again. "
Recalling the stubborn old man again in his mind, Lorenzo's mood was very strange. All of this actually stemmed from his conspiracy, the old man's fantasy of the golden age.
He was the one who planned all of this. He was the real man behind the scenes of the Holy Night. He deliberately handed over the captured silencers as the [Holy Grail] to the opponents, splitting them into the faction of war and the faction of faith. Then use the information gap to drive the Silent to destroy all powerful enemies.
All this was done by Lorenzo Medici, the night of the Holy Advent, all these sorrows, but Lorenzo could not hate that old man at this moment.
Lorenzo Medici did too many crazy things for all this, but just when he was about to get it all, he gave up.
The last scene in the dry well was deeply engraved in Lorenzo's mind. As long as he thought, everything he imagined would come true, but he gave up all this persistence and let himself live, and he was calm Accepted the coming of death.
This is an unscrupulous lunatic. For that lofty ideal, he doesn't even mind sacrificing himself to pave the way to holiness.
For the golden age.
Lorenzo suddenly felt very tired.
"More than that, that was a crazy old man. He had thought about what would happen if he failed, and I was his backup plan after failure."
"The Scabbard Treaty?"
"Yes."
Watson revealed everything she knew to Lorenzo at this moment.
"When he didn't return to the Stasis Temple to save everything, I knew he failed, but I succeeded. I completed [sublimation] and became like this, but I was very unstable like you at the time. Like a toddler, none of us knows what power we hold.”
"Is that why these things happened? Your body was also shattered? That's why 047 is needed as the carrier of will, but he can't withstand the erosion caused by you... It may also be the influence he received during the previous battle. Just die, right?"
Watson nodded stiffly.
"Yes, but there's something different about it."
"for example?"
"For example, I do not have an entity. The moment I complete [sublimation], I break away from the shackles of the physical body and exist in a spiritual body."
Lorenzo became a little more interested and turned his head to look at this unfamiliar face.
"Not Power Gabriel? I thought you existed in my mind in a form of [gap] invasion."
"I don't know, but I can feel that I am a higher existence than you, and my degree of [sublimation] is deeper than yours."
Watson is not very clear about all this. What they are facing is a darkness that is difficult to reach, a [border] that is heavily protected by unknown forces.
"But I think I might be like..."
"The silent one?" Lorenzo replied, to which Watson responded with silence.
"The [Truth] of the world is protected behind the [Border], and the [Border] is protected by the Silent Ones, and now the end of the Demon Hunter's [Ascension] seems to be the Silent Ones... It's getting interesting, Watson .”
Lorenzo lit another cigarette. There were already a few more cigarette butts on the ground, and the cigarette case was almost empty. He didn't have much of a craving for cigarettes, but for some reason today, he just wanted to smoke. The mandrake mixed with it soothed him. pain of.
"Then the Treaty of the Scabbard is the backup plan? It must have something to do with the Golden Age too? Let me see, you are also Lorenzo Medici's chosen successor. If he fails, you will be a ghost Do you want to continue to act within the church and pursue that golden age?”
Watson nodded, all this was Lorenzo Medici's plan. Although he died seven years ago, his influence is still affecting everyone, just like fate, everything is going according to It happened as he expected.
"That is to say, you have been living in lies, plans, conspiracies, revenge and rage, all for the sake of Lorenzo Medici's ideals."
Watson said indifferently.
"This is not what you said, Watson. To become what you are now, you must believe in that beautiful golden age and do all this, right? All your actions are for the golden age. But what you just said may cause me to deviate from your plan." Lorenzo asked.
"You have recovered your memory, no one will deceive you anymore, and it will be sooner or later that you deviate from all this, isn't it?"
"really?"
After a long silence, Watson reached out and picked up a cigarette from Lorenzo's cigarette case, puffing on it.
"You can get away with the lies, Lorenzo, get off these damn responsibilities and live the life you want."
Lorenzo was slightly stunned, his empty eyes became brighter, and then he laughed.
"Do you want me to escape from this curse? Watson, so 016 you are not dead after all. Monsters can't say such things."
Lorenzo looked delighted.
"It's great. There are still people who care about me, even though you look like you are neither a human nor a ghost."
But he shook his head and said a little tiredly.
"Let's talk about something else, Watson. I've been exposed to too many heavy things this month. Let me take a break and take a rest."
"Are you trying to complain?"
"That's right. After all, you seem to be the only person familiar with my past."
Lorenzo raised his hand, holding a half-burnt piece of rotten wood, with writings still visible on it.
The wreckage of the Winchester was one of the reasons why he returned to 121A Cork Street. Thinking about it carefully, this was the only thing left to keep him as a souvenir.
"Is 047 really dead? I seemed to see him on the Reichenbach. I don't know if it was a hallucination or something."
"You are very clear, aren't you? You are asking me now, just hoping that I will affirm you and shatter the little fantasy you have." Watson understood Lorenzo's thoughts very well.
"So he's still dead?" Lorenzo asked helplessly, "I still couldn't say goodbye properly."
"The two wills are intertwined. 047 did survive for a period of time as a ghost, but as you recover your lost memories, it also means that your will has completely taken over this body, and the broken will It will also be completely annihilated.”
"That is to say, when I think about everything, he has ushered in the real day of death, right?"
There was no sadness or sorrow on Lorenzo's face. From beginning to end, he had no major emotional fluctuations, just like a cold sculpture.
"I have always felt that death is a very long thing. When the last person who remembers 047 dies, 047 will truly die. But if you think about it carefully, death is so short, just a moment.
There were no heroic words like vomiting blood and screaming, vowing to fight to the death, and no affectionate memorials and confessions. He just died, and after a moment, only the painful blank space was left..."
"You need to rest, Lorenzo."
Watson suddenly felt that Lorenzo was scary. He was not the evil spirit burning with anger before, but a dead man full of deathly energy, with a strong will of death all over his body.
Lorenzo shook his head again and answered with a bit of a smile.
"I'm resting, Watson. Look what a rare holiday I have."
The train arrived with the sound of its whistle, and left again shortly afterwards. The travelers carried their luggage, smiling and talking. Some were looking forward to a new life in the old Dunling, and some were looking forward to the distance beyond the old Dunling.
This is the living world, and the two of them are incompatible with it.
"I have thought a lot this month. I found the connection between me and the world very interesting. I want to vent my anger. I want to avenge my friends, so the world answers me, as long as all the demons are eradicated. That’s fine, I’ll just do it.
Kill all the monsters I see.
But the world told me that this would not avenge them, no matter how many monsters were killed, they would still reappear, and I wanted to destroy their roots.
But what is the source of the demon? "
Lorenzo lowered his head and laughed self-deprecatingly.
"I feel like a slave, a slave to fate. I can't tell whether the answer is true or false, and I don't know if everything will turn out as I expected after doing so. No one can tell me whether all this is correct. I All I can do is follow all this. If it asks me to eradicate the demon, I will eradicate the demon. If it asks me to destroy the root, then I will destroy the root.
I have no way of questioning it. No matter how ridiculous and absurd this approach is, I can only foolishly believe it and stubbornly execute it.
Since this is the only answer, I can only believe it all. "
Lorenzo slowly raised his head, rubbed his face vigorously to relax the stiff muscles, and forced a kind smile.
"It's time for me to leave, Lorenzo. You have the beacon left by my erosion on you. We will meet again."
Watson couldn't bear it anymore. She stopped looking at Lorenzo and closed her eyes, and the whiteness in her eyes dissipated.
The woman opened her eyes again. She was a little unclear as to why she was here. Then she noticed the strange man next to her. Although he smiled kindly at her, the woman still ran away in a panic. , she also couldn't figure it out, but just like instinct, she didn't want to stay there anymore.
Lorenzo was the only one left again, but he didn't feel much disappointed. In fact, he had already prepared for all this. He was also a detective after all. During this month of rest, Lorenzo would basically pass. The integration was almost complete, and everything was extremely clear in his eyes, but he only needed one person to confirm the authenticity of it all.
"But you are wrong about one thing, Watson."
Lorenzo suddenly said to himself.
"I am not living a lie. Although all this is in your plan, I am not manipulated by anyone. I do everything based on my own intention... This is what I want. "
Lorenzo's expression changed, and a raging fire ignited in his decadent eyes. It has never been extinguished, and will only burn crazier in the future.
"This is not your wish alone, this... is also my wish."
For the golden age.
(End of this chapter)